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Alumni Achievements: 48HFP Filmmakers In 12 Cities Join Forces To Make A FilmWednesday, July 11, 2018

For an independent filmmaker trying to pull off a road movie feature film with multiple locations across the country, their first task would normally be to start making rewrites to the script to cut out as many of those locations as possible. To move a cast & crew across the country is enormously expensive, and a logistical nightmare. But for filmmaker Jonathan Zuck, he just saw it as a challenge--and one that he knew he could pull off, with a little help from the 48 Hour Film Project.

Zuck fought against the urge to pull back and make cuts to the script. Instead he contacted Mark Ruppert from the 48HFP, and told him about this crazy plan he had--an Eastern seaboard road movie, shot in 12 different cities up and down the coast, using 12 different award-winning 48HFP film crews from those cities. With Ruppert's help, Zuck was able to identify and enlist the help of what has turned out to be the largest collaboration of 48HFP filmmakers to date. This large-scale 48HFP group effort became the feature length film Meant to Be Broken.

Starting in May of 2017, Zuck, along with only the leads of the movie and a skeleton film crew, made their way down the East coast from Amherst, MA to Miami, FL. They met up with local 48HFP film crews along the way, who identified actual local business locations for them to use in each of their respective cities, and also provided local cast and supplemental crew members. All in all, the cast was made up of over 80 people, and they traveled to 12 different states over the course of the 30 days it took to make the trip during production.

As a long time competitor in the 48HFP, Zuck knew that this was the sort of collaboration that could only be pulled off because of the 48 Hour Film Project. He has competed numerous times throughout the years in the Washington D.C. 48HFP with his team DC Dogs, a multi-media performing arts troupe, as well as in Baltimore and Miami, where their film "Palindrome" won Best Film of the 2010 Miami 48HFP. Over the 15 years since their inception, DC Dogs have produced over 20 short films (several award winning), 2 music CDs, numerous plays, and have taught classes and mentored students in filmmaking and photography. Throughout the years Zuck has made many close ties and good connections, with a lot of talented 48HFP filmmakers around the country, so it seemed like a natural fit to use these connections to help him pull off this giant collaboration.

Learn a little more about the trip itself and the process in this behind the scenes documentary:

Meant to Be Broken is the story of Harvey, a cautious man who has led a conscientious life until he gets fired and suddenly finds out that he has one month to live. There he meets Luke and confesses he's never broken any rules. Luke responds, "Do you want to?" and their journey begins. The feature length film is a crazy journey that involves kidnapping, law breaking, and self discovery.